Talk of Pets
by Philosophical Bunny
Summary: Hagrid would've thought he was the king of having bad luck with pets, that is until Ron comes to see him and confides in him about his fears about a certain traitorous former pet rat. One Shot. Set at end of PoA. No pairing just a nice chat between two characters who have more in common than I originally thought. Rated T just to be on the safe side as deals with traumatic issues.


**Author's Note: **

**Alright, so this is my very first Fan Fiction in years, and my first one ever that I'm really trying to stay as close to canon as possible, so please reviews and feedback would be greatly appreciated. (Even if yes, I know this is a bit sloppy, it is my first)**

**Also this addresses one of the big things that have always bugged me about the HP series; while I love Rowling as a writer she completely gave Ron the shaft in the third book. Yes, she addressed how creeped out he was figuring out Scabbers was Pettigrew by his "you slept in my bed" line, but never again addressed the trauma that any normal person would feel. With Ron being my favorite character since the beginning, I was disappointed when the ending of PoA was basically "so the pet you handfed, had sit in your lap, sleep in your bed, crawl all over you, and probably saw you naked several times was a creepy middle-aged man, but hey, Harry saw his father in himself, isn't that great!" I never felt like Ron never got the closure he deserved, so that's what I'm doing here. **

**Anyway, my ranting aside, here's the actual fic, I hope you enjoy:**

Probably the last thing Hagrid had expected on the very last day of the school year was Ron Weasley coming to visit him alone. "Hey Ron, is Harry or Hermione with ya?" he asked. Ron looked almost insulted at the question; "No" he replied softly "I was wondering if we could talk?"

"Sure come on in, how's your leg?" Hagrid said opening the door for the limping redhead who muttered "it's fine", but then quickly hid the bottle of fire-whiskey he had on his end table "been celebratin' since Beaky escaped" he admitted. Ron nodded "um yeah about that" he was fidgeting a lot and always moving his hand down to his pocket.

"You three had somethin' to do with it?" Hagrid guessed. He should've figured as much, that Harry, Ron, and Hermione would be behind it. "Well it's sort of a long story, and Hargid, you may want to sit down for this one" Ron said, his voice sounded so unlike him, it was surprisingly soft. Hagrid looked at him seriously and sat down.

It took Ron a while to get it all out but he explained what really happened that night, getting dragged into the Shrieking Shack by Sirius, finding out who the real servant of They Knew Who really was, the real reason for James and Lily's death, Lupin turning into a werewolf, and what happened with the Dementors. Ron then went on to explain what Hermione had told him about what happened while he was unconscious in the hospital wing, how they went back in time, freed both Buckbeak and Sirius and how Hagrid's pet was now in the hands of Harry's godfather, who as it turns out what the good guy and would make sure to take care of him.

"-and so Buckbeak is safe, he's with Sirius and they're probably in the mountains somewhere" Ron finished, taking a drink of the tea Hagrid had made while he told the story. "That's good" Hagrid said, everything made perfect sense to him now, but there was one thing that didn't make sense to him: why was Ron the one telling him all this? Of the trio, Ron was probably the one he was least close to (and the one who was least close to him). Then it hit him, the reason why Ron seemed so unlike himself, the reason his hand kept migrating to his pocket as if he had to keep checking that something was there, or in this case: not there.

"You miss Scabbers, don't ya" Hagrid said bluntly while Ron's eyes went wide "what?! No!" he snapped defensively, but the lad couldn't fool him, Hagrid knew all too well the loss of a pet, but Ron, Ron lost a pet in probably the worst way possible. Why he wasn't talking to Harry or Hermione about this was beyond Hagrid, but if Ron needed a shoulder to cry on, well, his was certainly big enough.

Ron glared daggers at him but his expression softened. The young redhead was too busy trying to swallow so many emotions at once he didn't know how to feel. One thing was for sure though; he couldn't talk to Harry about it. While Harry was not a selfish person, Ron knew how wrapped up he was in all these revelations about his parents and godfather that he probably wouldn't look twice at Ron who was still having trouble admitting he missed Scabbers to himself, any attempt to try to share his pain with Harry would result in the yelling of: "RON THAT _MAN_ KILLED MY PARENTS! HE'S THE REASON THEY'RE DEAD! HE'S THE REASON I CAN'T LIVE WITH SIRIUS AND HAVE TO RETURN TO THE DURSLEY'S! AND YOU _MISS_ HIM!" He could hear every word in Harry's voice.

As to Hermione, well Ron could talk to her, she probably was a good listener and would offer helpful advice, but be it his own stubbornness or stupidity, he didn't want to talk to her about his problems. That left nobody else, except maybe Percy, as he owned Scabbers first, however he also had his head so far up the Ministry's behind that Ron doubted Percy would even believe his story.

"Okay, I miss Scabbers, I really do, but it's more than that, I-" Ron stopped dead and lowered his head. "All these questions, I can't stop thinking about them, why did Scab-Pettigrew stay with my family for so many years? Why didn't we ever notice? And if he was a man the whole time-" Ron stopped as he looked back at so many memories with a new light. He had always thought Scabbers was just a rat so he wasn't afraid to change in front of him. Shortly after Percy got Scabbers Fred and George got a hold of him and shoved him down Percy's trousers as a joke. The things Ron said in front of Scabbers, about his fears and insecurities, all of it, had been in front of a creepy, dirty, coward of a man who made Ron's skin crawl.

Hagrid watched as Ron hugged himself dealing with this trauma, he felt bad for Ron but didn't know how to comfort him. He should be in the comfort of his friends and family but if Ron was insisting on not talking to them there was little he could do. Hagrid suddenly wished that he never took in Scabbers when Ron thought Crookshanks had eaten him, or that he criticized Ron for not taking good enough care of his pets. He obviously loved Scabbers very much even if he didn't show it. The rat had been in Ron's family since he was a baby, twelve years. Hagrid had been reduced to tears at losing Norbert and Buckbeak and he hadn't even known for them for a year let alone twelve.

"There's more" Ron sighed, not looking at him. "Lupin had to leave before I could ask him anymore about Pettigrew, but from what I gather, before he worked for You Know Who back when he was friends with Lupin, Sirius, and Harry's father he was also sort of useless, a coward. Sometimes I wonder if I'm . . . going to be like that too" Ron said raising his head, his eyes now red.

"Ron, what are ya talkin' about?" Hagrid asked in honest shock, where did he get an idea like that? "Like you don't know!" Ron said loudly. "I contently get compared to my brothers which doesn't make me look good, and I've been nothing but useless to Harry and Hermione, first year the Devil's Snare, I just kept screaming in fear even though they told me it was going to be okay, second year while Harry saved my sister I was blocked off with Lockhart, now . . . I couldn't even help them free Sirius or Buckbeak, when we all grow up people will be telling stories of the great Harry Potter and where will I be?" Ron sighed, covering his face with his hands again, wiping his nose on his sleeve. Hagrid felt a twinge of guilt as he remembered one of the first things he said to Ron was "I always admired your brother Charlie"

Ron took a deep breath and continued "I keep having this image in my head, Harry and Hermione together . . . with a kid" that thought alone bothered Ron though for reasons he wouldn't begin to understand for a few more years, "and if I were in that-"

"Ron, you're not a cowered and you ain't like Pettigrew" Hagrid said cutting him off, causing Ron to look up at him. "Ye ain't a coward, if you were you wouldn' have gone down the third floor corridor to begin with and you wouldn' of gone to see Aragog last year" he said. Ron managed a half hearted chuckle "thanks for reminding me, I still need to plan your murder for that one" he said though there was no real heat or threat to his voice. "Seriously Hagrid, we could've died" he said. "Ain't no different from your first year, or this year, and he did help ya" Hagrid countered.

Ron nodded, that was technically true, but he didn't need to remember monstrous spiders to add to the nightmares he was already going to have because of the events of this year. "And it's probably going to be no different from next year as well" Ron said. "But seriously, who keeps a giant spider as a pet?"

"True" Hagrid agreed before saying "well not everybody likes rats either but you kept one"

"yeah but rat's aren't scary" Ron said, though still he remembered Ginny was scared of Scabbers at first though she eventually got used to him and some of the other Gryffindor were scared of him, so maybe rats were scary to some people, didn't compare to spiders in Ron's book.

At least when rats are just rats, not when they are creepy human beings that invaded your childhood and you don't know if it was intentional or not.

As the air grew silent between them Ron looked out the window "I should probably get going"

"Yeah, I don't want to keep you out to late" Hagrid said as Ron got up "oh and Ron"

"Yeah?"

"You should talk to your family, and for what it's worth, I'm sorry about Scabbers" Hagrid said.

Ron smiled probably his first genuine one since the events at the Shrieking Shack.

"Thanks Hagrid, and thanks for the talk" he said leaving without another word, both knew the Ron was more than likely never going to open up the way he did this evening, but both knew this conversation was never going to be forgotten.

**-End- **


End file.
